The Brooklyn Museum, Murakami, Vuitton, and Homeland Security

At this point we can all go see Murakami, Vuitton, and HOMELAND SECURITY “team up” at the Brooklyn Museum, a combo that has a lot of news presence, and about 550 square feet worth of boutique in the exhibition. I like that the press release openly talks about how unpopular the Vuitton Murakami enterprise was with the press, but you’d have to be in some sort of coma not to have your bullshit detector go through the roof with this;

A partnership between the government and industry that serves such needy organizations as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration Control and Enforcement, the foundation provides funds to the families of slain agents, as well as doing outreach, “making the police and the feds seem ‘cool’ to kids.”

I’m skeptical of most marketing aimed to make products that wouldn’t ordinarily be of interest to kids appealing, and law enforcement agents are no exception. Also, it’s entirely unclear what programs the Homeland Security supports as a means of achieving this goal, since those listed don’t include the educational outreach they claim. The Foundation’s primary purpose appears to be providing emergency funding and/or financial assistance to the families of agents and officials who have been injured or killed in the line of duty. That’s just fine of course, but it would be nice to see how much money they’ve given out to people. Nothing is listed on the site, though there is a handy page telling visitors how they can participate. “Stay vigilant. Stay strong. Stay committed to freedom.” and visit this other page telling you how to prepare against 14 different natural disasters and 5 variations of terrorist attacks. What a resource.

Related: Bloggy’s Your Moment of Oh My: As Barry Hoggard wisely observes, the federal government should provide these resources to families and citizens rather than expect private fundraising to take care of them.